European Commission clears acquisition of Bulgaria’s Vivacom by United Group

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The European Commission
has approved, under the EU Merger Regulation, the acquisition of sole
control of the whole of Viva Telecom Bulgaria OOD and its subsidiary,
the Bulgarian Telecommunications Company EAD (together referred to as
“BTC”) of Bulgaria by United Group BV of the Netherlands, the
Commission said on April 6.

United Group, a
telecoms and media company, had said on November 7 that it had
agreed to buy Vivacom, one of Bulgaria’s three major telecom
operators, for an undisclosed amount. Vivacom was the state-owned
fixed-line monopoly Bulgarian Telecommunications Company prior to its
privatisation in 2004.

The European Commission
noted that BTC, as it referred to it in its statement, provides fixed
and mobile telecommunication services, broadband internet and TV
distribution services, while United Group is active in the provision
of media and telecommunication services in South East Europe.

“The Commission
found that the proposed transaction would raise no competition
concerns given the very limited increase in the merged entity’s
market position and the presence of several other players in the
market of retail supply of Pay-TV services (via internet) in
Bulgaria.”

The Commission also
found that the vertical links between the upstream markets for
wholesale mobile and fixed call termination services and the
downstream markets for retail mobile and fixed telecommunications
services arising from the transaction would not be problematic.

“Therefore, the
Commission concluded that the proposed transaction would raise no
competition concerns,” the statement said.

The transaction was
examined under the normal merger review procedure.

At the time the deal was announced, it was the second major transaction involving one of Bulgaria’s mobile carriers in recent months, after Norway’s Telenor sold its Central and Eastern European telecommunications business, which included Telenor Bulgaria, to Czech investment conglomerate PPF Group for 2.8 billion euro in March 2018.

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